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Judge says parents paid excessive truancy fines

November 23, 2012

LEBANON (AP) — A federal judge has ruled it was wrong for parents in a Pennsylvania school district to be overcharged for truancy fines.

Some parents in the Lebanon School District filed a lawsuit in January 2011 said the court-imposed fines it says were above the state’s limit of $300 per violation. They claimed they collectively overpaid by $180,000, with one family paying $9,000 in fines.

U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane said in a ruling Wednesday the parents did overpay. She didn’t yet decide whether they should get their money back.

The lawsuit asked the court to force the district to stop collecting the fines and demanded repayment of hundreds of truancy fines.

The school district has argued that it had no control over the fines because they’re set by a magisterial judge.